On the evening of the hard defeat of the classic in Arabia, Carlo Ancelotti performed with a particularly quiet tone. “It was a bad game in everything.” He’d spent days publicly warning and privately lobbying the problems they were carrying around, but they’d crashed anyway. And with some noise. The Madrid coach looked dejected. However, just before leaving the room, he left a cry of rebellion: “I have no doubt: Madrid are back. I have no doubt about that.” A week later, in San Mamés, the change of course seemed logical. Cornered but not given up, the Italian reached it by a route other than his classic formula.
Last season, in a game against Athletic of all things, he shaped his course formula: 60 minutes of quality and 30 minutes of energy. He referred to the fact that starting games with Casemiro, Kroos and Modric worked for him, so after the hour the fresh legs of Rodrygo, Camavinga and Valverde stepped in to support the effort. The December 2021 game at the Bernabéu had a shattering end (1-0): “Suffering can win the same,” summed up Ancelotti.
On Sunday, the Italian, who saw his warnings about commitment and defensive play fizzled, left Modric and Kroos on the bench and used them towards the end of the game to try to maintain the small lead they had achieved. In the middle of the field. Valverde and Ceballos accompanied Camavinga in his second full game in a row as pivots.
The Frenchman symbolizes Ancelotti’s leap of faith in the urgency of finding a way out of the quagmire his team was stuck in. When he couldn’t count on Aurélien Tchouameni, he had almost always preferred to put Kroos in that position, although the German doesn’t like playing there. But that’s exactly when the technician thought he needed it.
During Camavinga’s first year at Madrid, Ancelotti often stated that he still lacked the tactical wisdom to master the defensive midfielder position. He saw in him an extraordinary agitator in the final stages of collective insanity, but he doubted his ability to control his impulsiveness. It was common to see him remove it from the field at half-time after seeing a yellow card in the first half. Most recently in the semifinals of the Supercup against Valencia.
Until last Thursday, in the last 16 of the cup against Villarreal, Camavinga got a yellow card in the 36th minute and Ancelotti kept it (2:3). The Frenchman delivered a very good game on what was a turning point night for Madrid. The change of pace was cemented on Sunday against Athletic (0-2), in a night where Camavinga, even better than Vila-real, made nine comebacks, his second-best league game according to Opta. “The team showed a collective commitment that they haven’t had in recent games,” Ancelotti said.
He had been pondering this displeasure for some time, which he particularly disliked in the game against Rayo in Vallecas, the penultimate game before the World Cup. That day he noticed an alarming drop in tension in a squad that seemed to only be looking at Qatar. On his return from the World Cup, the Italian saw no improvement and repeatedly called for a change from his players quite firmly, according to a source with access to the dressing room. Most recently at half-time in the cup game against Villarreal, where the turning point began. There, Ceballos, Asensio and Camavinga stood out, appearing in the starting XI at San Mamés.
With Modric under a lot of pressure after the World Cup and Kroos misplaced as a pivot, Ancelotti has found a new way to revitalize the group, which doesn’t start with the hierarchy as usual. He now has the management of the veterans against the rising youngsters after last year it worked in reverse: introducing the youngsters to complement the veterans, 60 minutes of quality and 30 minutes of energy, that winning formula.
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